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With the fifth most wins all time among Major League Baseball managers, former Yankees skipper Joe Torre appeared to be a lock for the Hall of Fame someday. He didn’t see it that way, though.

Torre was humble after the baseball Hall of Fame’s expansion era committee announced Monday that he, Tony La Russa and Bobby Cox had all been unanimously elected to the Hall of Fame.

Torre said he never expected to be a shoo-in, giving perhaps the most fitting example possible of why no one should count his chickens before they hatch.

“People said, ‘Oh, don’t worry about it,’” he told reporters. “Well, that’s what they said when I was up 3-0 against the Red Sox.”

Torre’s Yankees had the upper hand against the Red Sox for many years, but that changed during the fateful series Torre alluded to. In 2004, Boston came back from trailing New York 3-0 in the American League Championship Series and defeated the Yankees on the way to the Red Sox’ first World Series win in 86 years. The Red Sox then took another title in 2007, which was also the final year at the helm for Torre, who was run out of town after a 94-68 season.

Torre went 2,326-1,997 (a .538 winning percentage) over his managerial career, including a 1,173-767 stretch with the Yankees, with whom he won four World Series. He also managed the New York Mets, the Atlanta Braves, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Los Angeles Dodgers.